Some Notes on Windows Terminal

WinTermNote latest version includes the possibility to opt for Windows Terminal emulator alongside Alacritty terminal emulator and the default Windows Command Prompt. It has some interesting options that can be set in order to create a more productive environment.

Create a WinTermNote profile

Windows Terminal has a set of default profiles like Windows PowerShell and the Command Prompt, but it can also handle user-defined profiles, in this case, linked to the WinTermNote application.

Open Settings in the drop-down menu, click to Add new in the Profiles section and set a Name for this profile. Then pick WinTermNote desktop shortcut for the Command line input box, it should automatically resolve the file path and change the name of the executable from wintermnote.exe to wintermnote_terminal.exe(see update 2023-09-05 at the bottom of this page) . Copy the same previous path into the Starting directory box as shown below for my username.

Finally, pick the .ico file from WinTermNote notes directory for the Icon input box. Now you should be able to open WinTermNote from the drop-down menu as shown below.

settings.json

The file settings.json is the user configuration file for Windows Terminal but isn't so easy to locate from the file explorer. Press Shift-Ctrl P which opens the terminal command palette. Type or select Open settings file, and it will open your settings.json file in the default text editor.

You can manually modify actions and keybindings to suit your individual preferences and style.

MSYS2 Command Line

I have in my setting.json a profile for the MSYS2 shell which can be enabled by copy and paste the following snippet inside the list of profiles.

            {
                "colorScheme": "One Half Dark",
                "commandline": "C:\\msys64\\usr\\bin\\bash.exe -login -i",
                "cursorShape": "filledBox",
                "experimental.retroTerminalEffect": false,
                "fontSize": 14,
                "icon": "C:\\msys64\\msys2.ico",
                "name": "msys2"
            }

   

It can be rather useful to have a Linux-like command line at hand.

Postscript 2023-02-20

Here's the documentation for the MSYS2 shell on Windows Terminal.

Postscript 2023-09-05

Add the option --external to the Profile's command line e.g.:

   C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\WinTermNote\wintermnote_terminal.exe --external